Eric Adams takes office vowing a safer, stronger recovery

Eric Adams was sworn in as New York City's 110th mayor in the early hours of New Year's Day, taking the helm of a city still reeling from the pandemic and pledging immediate action to restore safety, revive the economy and deliver for working-class New Yorkers.

Adams took the oath shortly after midnight in Times Square, then held a formal ceremony later in the day. He inherited a city confronting an Omicron surge, rising crime, strained finances and a recovery that remained fragile and uneven across the five boroughs.

In his early days he moved quickly to signal his priorities, naming a new police commissioner, promising to revive an anti-gun unit in a revamped form, and vowing to get more officers onto the streets and subways while also pledging to address the root causes of crime.

He framed his administration around competence and getting things done, a contrast he drew with his predecessor, and spoke often of his own journey from a working-class childhood and a difficult encounter with the police to the leadership of the department and then the city.

The challenges were immense, and the honeymoon brief. But Adams began his term projecting energy and optimism, insisting that New York's best days lay ahead and that a safer, more affordable city was within reach if the government could simply deliver.